"Children are now the People of Life"
January 20, 2013
January 20, 2013
The Feast of the Lord and Giver of Life
Genesis 1: 26 -28/Psalm 10/Romans 8: 35 – 38/Matthew 18:1-5
His Eminence
His Eminence
The Most Reverend Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines D.D.
Archbishop of Manila
and
Primate
of the
National Church in the Philippines
and
the Territorial Church of Asia
International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church
The history of the Charismatic Episcopal Church goes back to a time when our first Patriarch and his wife, as well as several other people from the Church, were involved in protest in the city of Los Angeles. Both of them were arrested and jailed. The arresting officers were very brutal; the arm of the Patriarch’s wife was broken and they would not give her immediate medical attention even as she was in great pain. In the midst of this time that they spent in jail, God spoke to them and showed to them compassion, a concern, and a peace that can come from no other source but God.
Perhaps, the beginning of the CEC has this as a foundation. We are not a Church who believes in life, but we are a Church whose life has given to us all that we are. Today, society has little value for life. As an example, the news from Algeria shows the Algerian army killing all the hostages and terrorists. Life has lost its value. We have twisted our mentality and our understanding. We have very little value for that which God has given to us. When you forsake God, all kinds of tragedy will follow. The signing of the RH Bill in the Philippines probably will bring upon us disaster, difficulty, and trouble. It is sad. What they say that the bill was supposed to do, you didn’t need a bill to do it. If you read the bill, there is more than what they have shared with us.
Perhaps, the beginning of the CEC has this as a foundation. We are not a Church who believes in life, but we are a Church whose life has given to us all that we are. Today, society has little value for life. As an example, the news from Algeria shows the Algerian army killing all the hostages and terrorists. Life has lost its value. We have twisted our mentality and our understanding. We have very little value for that which God has given to us. When you forsake God, all kinds of tragedy will follow. The signing of the RH Bill in the Philippines probably will bring upon us disaster, difficulty, and trouble. It is sad. What they say that the bill was supposed to do, you didn’t need a bill to do it. If you read the bill, there is more than what they have shared with us.
See the beauty of life. You cannot take away the victory of God’s people. Scriptures say that if we put our faith in God, in God’s time He will vindicate us. He will bring the victory to those whose faith is in Him. We must keep our faith in Him. It is not despair, anxiety or we are happy with the things as they are, but we know God and His provision. He will not put us to shame.
Genesis gives us the foundation of how God created man. It really challenges us to set a new course for our life. Genesis 1:26 says, “God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image and likeness.’” From what mold were we made? What was the standard set for our life? God-likeness. Today, we have lost the image of God because we seek our lives to pattern after others. Some want to follow entertainers; others would want to follow political entities. We have all different kinds of things that we have set in our lives as our image that we want to be. According to Scripture, when we were created, God gave us the image. God gave us the model that we were to be like Him.
When God created man, it was from the dust of the earth. I like the way God did it because it speaks so loud to us. He took the mud of the earth and formed it into man. Raising man above the mud, the mire, the dust and the dirt, He breathed into that mass His breath and man became a living soul. No longer the dust, the mud, the downtrodden, but now raised up to a new level of being.
“Let Us make man in Our image and likeness.” When He created them, He blessed them. The blessings of man are without repentance. The blessings of God are gifts given that literally lift man far above humanity alone to empower us to be rulers and to cultivate and to keep. God said to man, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth.” He wasn’t only talking about children, even though they are included here. He was talking about the very image of the kingdom of God. He was putting upon us the responsibility to live out this image that He has given to us. It is an image of likeness, empowered by His own breath, His own Spirit, sharing part of what He is with us. Giving us a portion of His grace. It would share with us that man is without that sense of worthlessness.
Man has been given that grace that which comes from God – the ability, the potential, the power, and the favor that is His. He has lifted us up and if there is ever a need of a renewal and awareness of what He has done, we need it today. Scriptures says, “My people perish for a lack of knowledge.” Truly, we have lost sight of where we have come from. We have lost sight of our lineage, our heritage, the excellence, and the perfection of God that He created us from. We are not worthless, without capability, not downtrodden, not cast aside, but one that would be able to rise, to rule, and to reign.
Man today has been put down by many. We have become slaves of our society. When in reality, we should be slaves of God. He has given to us all that we have. Our thanksgiving, our praise, our efforts, our work should be unto Him, not unto us. Not unto us, O Lord, but unto Thee! This is the provision and the greatness of God in our lives. Who can take that away from us? No one!
Romans 8 share so powerfully with us the beauty, the grace, and the mercy of God. Romans 8:35, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress, or persecutions, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” None of these things can separate us. When we get into the midst of these, why do we feel like it is the end? We submit to these things rather than realizing that these things can’t separate us from the love of God because that has been entrenched in us, written, tattooed within us in the soul. If we listen to the soul, it will bring forth the greatness and the provision of God.
“But in all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer through Him.” It is not just conquering, but overwhelmingly. We have been put down so much by society, by leaders, even by our parents. We have lost sight of the excellence, the greatness of God in our lives, and the power that He has given to us. “We overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.”Sometimes, we feel like we are lost. We feel like nobody loves or cares. How wrong we are!
Genesis 2 says, “God breathed the breath of His life into man, and that breath becomes the very soul of man.” The soul is what the body fulfills. St. John Chrysostom says, “A soul is that which has the member of the body as the implementation of his activities, submission to his will.” Here is the soul that God has given to us. If we protect and prepare that soul, it will bring the light of God out in our lives.
Tertullian says that the soul of man has its origin in the breath of God. It did not come from matter. It came from God. The very essence of our lives; the very being that we are has come from God. The soul is living; the soul gives life to the body. If the soul dies, the body dies because that soul is the very source of life to us. God planned to share His own grace in our lives; His likeness. It is His grace, His favor, His mercy.
Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. And before you were born I consecrated you.” Psalm 139:13, “Thou didst weave me in my mother’s womb. I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” See the origin of life; where it comes from. See who is orchestrating the movements and the situations that are taking place. Isaiah 49:1, “The Lord called Me from the womb; from the body of My mother He named Me.” How can it be that we are not alive in the womb? How can it be that life comes later when all of these things the Scriptures very vividly shares with us?
Isaiah 49:5, “The Lord, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant.” God says, “Is it too small a thing that You should be My Servant? With all that He has given to us, we should walk with Him. We should be obedient and submissive to Him. Isaiah 44, “Thus says the Lord who made you and formed you from the womb.” In Luke 1, during the time of Jesus, when Mary and Elizabeth met, it says of John that he would be filled with the Holy Spirit while in his mother’s womb.
This is not something that is taking place; it is the life of God being formed in flesh. It is His soul being brought out in man and in His existence. 2Samuel 14:14 says, “God does not take away life, but He plans ways so that the life will not be banished and will not be cast out from Him.” God does not destroy and does not take away the life. He does everything He can to make certain that the life is not destroyed. Psalms 66, “He who keeps us in life and does not allow our feet to slip.” These are Scripture after Scripture which identifies life in the womb and the value of that life being formed by God. God is at work there. He is the One forming that life. It is His very being that He has shared with us.
Acts 17:25, “He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things.” He is the One who gives us that life and that breath. This is why it tells us in Romans 8, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God.” It is His breath that is in us. It is His life that He has given to us. We have become one with Him as He has become one with us. Paul writes in Ephesians about marriage and how that husband and wife become one and he says, “I am not talking about husband and wife, but Christ and the Church, His people.”
Do we grasp the validity, the mystery of heaven and the earth becoming one? A divinity in humanity becoming one? The value of that which God has given to us? Yet, we have turned away from Him and we followed and implanted in our own lives things that are contrary to what God has given to us. Our images and our models that we want to follow, the likeness that we set in our lives, we set it by someone or something else rather than following the plans that God has given to us.
The gospel in Matthew 18 says, “At that time, the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Is this not the drive that we have in our own lives? We want to better than our parents. We want to rise above the just common and ordinary. As I was growing up, I was unhappy with the life that I was given. I made up my mind that I was going to be different than my parents. I was going to have more money than they have because we grew up in poverty. I was going to build a family that would not be without. We would not lack; we will have plenty.
I drove myself to that place. I did everything I could to make certain that was what I would achieve. In High School, I had three jobs while going to school. When I was sixteen years old, I bought my own automobile. My father did not have a car. I bought mine. When I got to College, I had to work my way through. Come summer vacation, I worked two full time jobs, sixteen hours a day to make it. I made it. I was able to achieve what I wanted, but when I got there, I realized it was not worth it. I came back to God.
There is no grace, no mercy that will equal obedience to Him. The disciples were struggling and wanted to know, “How can we be the greatest?” Jesus answered and called the child to Himself and set him before them. You can imagine Him with this child on His knee perhaps. He said to them, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like a child, you shall not enter the kingdom of God.”
It is not achieving the success or greatness but the attitude, the imagery of a child that God wants us to maintain. “Whoever then humbles himself as a child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives Me, he who receives a child, receives Me.” Our reading from the gospel is supposed to stop there but I don’t stop. Verse 5 says, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
Why do we not pay attention to the Scriptures? Why do we think we can slaughter our children and get away with it? Is it because the law says it is okay? The law of God is not subject to man’s understanding or his desires. See the attitude of a child – humble, dependent, lowly, simple, obedient, willingness to love and to be loved. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “…poor in spirit.” Not proud, not arrogant, but humble. It is not thinking that we are better than anyone else or trying to destroy others.
At the time of Christ’s birth, in the coming of the Magi, Herod became angry when he was told that a king born will be the king of Israel. Herod had fought to get his place in rulership. He had killed his father-in-law, several of his ten wives. He even killed two of his own sons to maintain his positions. His position of authority, having his own way, his own desires was important to him. When he heard that there was going to be one who was going to be king, immediately he decides, “I have to get rid of this because this is my position.” He killed the innocent children. He destroyed them because they are going to be in his way. They might take away his authority and his fame.
Children had been created in the image and the likeness of God. A child has such a beautiful imagery. When you hold that child, there is just something about that child that breaks down all of our bitterness and anger. We can become sweet all of a sudden because the child is bringing forth this character. He smiles at you; he wiggles back and forth. There is just a dependence, but he grabs a hold of your heart. He speaks things to you that he cannot speak out of his mouth because he hasn’t learned the words yet. He has within him that soul, that breath that came from God. His very character brings out that life. He challenges us. How he gets along with almost anyone that comes along. How that he can smile and minister his love to others.
The child is very humble, willing to be held, to be cuddled, to be served. Dependent. It is not an isolation; a separatist, but he loves people around him. He doesn’t mind that you tell him what he has to do. He doesn’t mind that you set the course and his schedule for him. When it is time to eat, he eats. When it is time to take a bath, he enjoys it. He submits to all of these things. It is not of his doing. He finds joy and comfort in others around him.
When we become a little older, we lose all of these characters. Why? Possibly because we learned it from the adults. They teach us selfishness. They teach us to have our own way. They teach us how to do what we want instead of what others want us to do. Soon, the childlikeness is gone. They become to image us. They become to follow us because that is what we have taught them. We gossip about people in front of them. We cheat the government. We don’t pay attention to the laws. We drive our cars without common sense. We don’t wait for the light. We scream and holler at other people. When we go into a restaurant, we demand attention now and we get upset with the waitresses when we don’t get all that we want.
All of a sudden, the child is being taught something that he was not given by God. His very character begins to change. When the little child was born, he affects the parents and demands their attention, their time. They have to be responsible. After a while, the parents become frustrated, “I want to do my own thing. I want to be fulfilled. I want to do things. I can’t do that if I have to be here with this child all the time.” Therefore, we don’t want responsibility anymore.
We come to a point where we have thought and thought about this and it drops into our heart and now, we pass a law that says we can slaughter them. It is okay. We make the decision and if you can’t give them a human life, then you shouldn’t have those children. They are going to tell us that if we can’t provide what they say, then you can’t have the children.
This is not what God says. It is contrary to the very principles of God. We want to take everything into our own hands. We know more than anybody else. We are not following God. We don’t have time to go to Church. We don’t have time to study God’s Word. We don’t even know what God wants from us. We are too busy with life. We are too busy becoming famous. We are too busy becoming rich. We are too busy becoming educated, in things which sometimes we don’t even use, but we can’t be committed to God. We don’t want the responsibilities. Even though God created us to be fruitful and to multiply, we decide, “We don’t want to be fruitful. We don’t want to multiply.” We want to set the course for our own lives. We want to make the decisions for ourselves. Yet everything that we’ve got has come from Him – our breath, our life. All that we eat, all that we have has come from Him. We think we did it. No, God is the One.
Psalm 127:3 says, “Children are a gift from the Lord.” The original writing says, “The children are an inheritance from the Lord.” Why do we see children as something that causes us problems? Why do we see children with an attitude, “I can’t do what I want?” We don’t see them as the gift that God has given to us so that we can inherit the things of God in our lives. “The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth.”
God says from the youth, not of a middle-aged family, but youth. We don’t want them to marry anymore. They have to go to college first; they have to have a job first. When they get to fifty, now it is okay to marry. They are ready for the grave. When are we going to wake up? God says from the youth. “How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They shall not be ashamed.” This is contrary to what the RH Bill says. God says, “If you have these children, you will not be ashamed.” The shame is not going to be on the family, but to those who try to control the blessings of God and hinder man from being blessed by God.
This is the Scripture. Do we believe in what God says? We claim that we are a Christian nation, but what has happened to us? We are told that the RH Bill is supposed to improve the quality of life. Is it by killing children? We can improve life without doing that, without making those decisions. Those decisions are personal between God and man. In reality, the thing that it enriches is the pharmaceutical companies that will make billions out of the products that will now be available. Much of those will come out of our pockets that even if we don’t believe it, we will pay for it because the government will be buying them.
Life is sacred. We have no right to limit. We should protect. When God put man in the Garden, He said, “Cultivate and keep,” not destroy. If only we had more sensitivity and more concerned for others, we would not find people hungry.
It is a challenge for us as we begin to bring to our memory to those who have lost their lives. As a country, we don’t have yet an abortion law. This RH Bill has the ability to put that in. Perhaps, it is deceitful in what its purpose is. In countries where this has taken place, when they begin to take away life, you begin to find disaster. The thing that we stand to make a declaration is: you can’t take away the life that God has given.
In the Altar, there is a small candle that burns 24/7. It represents children who have been aborted, who according to us lost their lives. We are making a declaration that they did not lose their life because God is the One who gave the life and He makes plans that even if life seemingly has taken, He provides it.
We have many abortions done in the Philippines. They don’t talk about that. They do it in secret. They are not different than others. As God’s people, we must recognize and celebrate life. I have said all that I have said so that we understand the value of life – where it comes from. Every one of us, every single one of us, whether we are in the cradle or in the home for the aged, we are from God. God values that life. God blesses that life. God said to us, “You will be My people and I will be your God.” If only we had faith to believe that, I believe that we would see that which we do not think possible.
Today, we celebrate the Feast of the Lord and Giver of Life. Life comes from God. We rejoice now; we must respect that life. I have been asked why our shirts are black and white. Shouldn't we have a better color than that? The reason for the black and white is because it shows a contrast. Everything is either black or white. There is no gray; there are no tones in between. Life is valuable and it is sacred. In the midst of a world of darkness, life is sacred. We keep that.
I challenge us to maintain a hope in God. We are not going out in the streets and riot. We are going to keep our faith high and our prayers going toward heaven. Scripture says, “Ask; keep on asking. Knock; keep on knocking. Seek; keep on seeking and it shall be given unto you.” We are not giving in. Around the world, “CEC FOR LIFE” makes that proclamation. Yesterday in the city of Washington D.C. there was a large rally for life.
We believe in life because it comes from God and man cannot destroy it. May we, as God’s people, recognize the beauty and the provision of that life. All life is sacred. May we recognize the sacredness of our lives. How are we handling the life that God has given to us? Do we treat it as sacred? Do we abuse it? Do we belittle it? No, we can’t. We must handle it with sacredness, with respect and with great honor because it came from God. But it is an attitude of humility, gentleness, and kindness. This is the attitude of God!
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